Best Dating Sites

These Are The 7 Best Dating Sites For Relationships

Between dating apps, dating events and niche dating sites you wouldn't want your mum to know about, there are a million and one algorithms working to your advantage in the world of dating today. And while there are plenty of free sites out there, sometimes you need to drop some cash if you want the best. Sound familiar? Yeah, that's life.

Parship

Parship

Members (UK): 700,000Male/Female Ratio: 51:49£29.90 per month for a 1 month membership

First launched in the UK over 10 years ago, Parship's members are young professionals looking for serious relationships. There are very few people here looking for a casual hookup, as the personality test, while not as extensive as eHarmony's (see below) it will still take a good half hour of your time.

The compatibility matching is termed "psychometric testing" and allegedly uses a scientific based matching process that starts by comparing your personality test results with those of other members. The completion of the personality test also results in a compatibility score, between 60 and 140 points (100 is the average).

Yes, you can use Parship without paying but profile photos are blurred out unless you're a paying member. And, really, as compatible as you may be with someone, you'd still want to see their face before meeting them in person. And no, we don't consider that shallow.

Match

Match.com

Members (UK): 3,500,000Male/Female Ratio: 51:49£29.99 per month with a 1 month membership

Started in 1995, Match.com is the first, and largest, dating site. The paid membership helps to deter anyone not looking for a serious relationship, so you won't find many options for a one night stand. After signing up but before paying, you'll fill out a questionnaire of basic lifestyle questions – nothing too scientific, psychological or quirky. Then you can browse profiles and even send winks for free before you sign up. Match.com also has an app, which is convenient.

You're pretty much left on your own here to find a partner, so if you're not into endless questionnaires trying to find the only other person out there who doesn't like chocolate, this could be the site for you. If you want something a bit more scientific, scroll down.

Dating Direct

Dating Direct

Members (UK): 4,500,000Male/Female Ratio: 48:52£29.99 per month with a 1 month membership

An almost identical site to Match, the only differences are the interface colours and mobile support, as they both belong to the same parent company. This means members of both sites are shared together on one single database. Meaning a membership database of over 4 million members in the UK alone. That's a lot of singles.

The central feature of Dating Direct (and Match) is “The Daily 6”, where each day their matching algorithm selects six different members that it thinks you will like. You are then asked the simple question: “would you like to meet them?” and can respond with either: yes, no, or maybe. If you do say yes, then that person is informed that you are interested in them, but it’s still left up to you to make the move.

Seeing as the only difference between Match and Dating Direct is really that the former offers the mobile app mentioned above, if you're mostly doing things from your phone you should probably just join Match.

Match Affinity

Match Affinity

Members (UK): 1,500,000Male/Female Ratio: 48:52£29.90 per month for a 3 month membership

The UK’s largest compatibility-based dating site, partners are chosen for you based on the results of a questionnaire that attempts to match you with members that are deemed to be most compatible with your personality type. This is serious stuff: prepare to be bombarded by over 100 personality based questions.

If you're the kind of online dater who likes to swipe right or scroll while watching Breaking Bad reruns, Match Affinity is probably too extensive for you. They don't even offer a traditional search box; instead the only option you have for finding potential dates is a button titled “Your Matches”, which, upon clicking, will give you all members that the matching system has decided you are most likely to, y'know, click with.

eHarmony

eHarmony

Members (UK): 3,500,000Male/Female Ratio: 51:49£44.95 per month for a 1 month membership

eHarmony takes a rigorous and scientific approach to relationships. The initial psychological questionnaire they use was developed by veteran clinical psychologist Dr Neil Clark Warren, who learnt, during his 35 years of work, that unsuccessful marriages were often the result of couples with large personality differences. If you're not into your partner having the same likes and dislikes as you (maybe you want someone who talks sense into you when you're about to jump off a cliff rather than someone who'll jump off with you), this isn't the site for you.

Once you've answered the 100+ questionnaire based around things like your character, sense of humour, values, beliefs, etc (yes, it looks like a standardised test sheet) the system will then match you to members with whom you share said values and beliefs.

Again, you won't find the standard search options on this site, but rather “My Matches”, where you'll find all of the members that have been matched to you. And a maximum of ten are displayed each day. If you want a buffet spread rather than a single souffle, you may want to look elsewhere.

My Single Friend

My Single Friend

Members (UK): 100,000Male/Female Ratio: 51:49£28.00 per month for a 1 month membership

Created by Channel 4 TV presenter Sarah Beeny in 2004 and billed as a "a no-nonsense approach to dating", My Single Friend is a social dating site where you need to be added by a friend in order to join. Here, your friends will have to describe your personality traits, not you, so it's basically the ideal site for anyone who's completely had it with dating profile questionnaires (we're looking at you). There’s no need to painfully describe your likes and dislikes any more; instead your friends are responsible for highlighting all of your good bits, and possibly the bad bits too if you pick the wrong friend.

If you've got a large network of friends and you don't mind being open and letting them in on your love life, My Single Friend could be the winner. Like most dating sites, there's a basic search bar which allows you to find all members meeting your criteria, so it's good for random connections as well.

Guardian Soulmates

Guardian

Members (UK): 170,000Male/Female Ratio: 51:49£32.00 per month for a 1 month membership

Dominated by Guardian readers (shocker), who, according the Guardians' own reader profiles are "affluent", "food and drink aficionados", "well-travelled" and "finance-savvy", this is the place to be if you're looking for someone to snuggle up to on a Sunday watching reruns of the week's Newsnight while your organic pinto beans simmer in the kitchen. Most members are in the 25 to 55 age group. While there's a typical questionnaire it's very basic so the meat of your profile is a 2000-word essay about yourself. And then another 2000-word essay about what you're looking for in a partner. We warned you.

Again, there’s a feature called “Your Matches”, where they use the criteria that you select in the ‘Who you’re looking for’ page to create a list of compatible 'Soulmates'. In an interesting twist, for each individual criteria, such as age or height, you can choose to set how important these criteria are to you; and if they are also important to other site members, then you will be matched together.